Stormwater retention using pervious concrete pavement: Great Western Sydney case study

Abstract

Urban stormwater runoff is evaluated to be in a higher volume when it is compared to the natural stormwater runoff. This is mainly due to the higher ratio of impervious surfaces in the urban texture which results in less water absorption by the ground. Many organizations around the world is promoting the concept of sustainable drainage system which are, in fact, focusing on not only the quantity of the stormwater retention, but also takes the quality of the stored water in account. This study aims to assess the feasibility of the application of pervious concrete pavements. An area of 754 km2 of the Western suburbs of Sydney has been selected for the case study. Considering the average rainfall in the selected region along with the state government plan on urban developments of the region, it is crucial to evaluate a suitable stormwater retention system. The rainfall data had been collected from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology. Laboratory experiments had been run to assess the compressive strength of the concrete samples at the age of 7 days. Permeability of the samples had been tested in order to match up the rainfall demand of the region. Workability tests had also been conducted to provide a more comprehensive view on the performance of the proposed pervious concrete also in the fresh state.